NAIROBI, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's soccer team (the Harambee Stars) coach Sebastian Migne has warned that poor preparation, which was witnessed prior to their Ghana trip, may derail the team's prospects at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt in June.
Speaking on his arrival in Nairobi on Monday from Accra, after Kenya lost 1-0 to their host Ghana, Migne wished his team will be given the best preparation in their build up to the AFCON finals, which will start on June 21.
"Of course I'm disappointed with the loss. It leaves us in a tougher situation because we will not be seeded. We were not far from registering a huge result in Ghana against a top team in Africa," Migne said on Monday in Nairobi.
"Until the 83rd minute it was perfect for us, but unfortunately in football at the high level you have to be good until the last second," he added.
The Frenchman wants the players, officials and all stakeholders not to rest on their laurels even as Kenya attained its goal to be among the 24 finalists heading for the AFCON finals.
"Kenya is not going to Egypt just to fill the numbers. We are a serious contender with the fast task being to make through the group stages. To attain that, we need to have support from the government. That must start with us booking our training base in France, which we are running late. We don't want other teams taking over from us and we will have no place to pitch camp," added Migne.
Kenya is also lining up three friendly matches in Europe and one in Nairobi prior to their departure to Egypt for the AFCON finals.
The federation had presented to the government a budget of 244 million shillings (2.4 million U.S. dollars) for the preparations and participation in the AFCON. The budget has since been approved.
Kenya has ended a 15-year jinx to make the finals of AFCON and joins the 24 teams, which will be drawn into six groups of four teams each.
The teams in each group will then play in a single round robin format, and after the group stage, the top two teams and the four best third teams will advance to the round of 16.
The group draw for AFCON 2019 will take place on April 12 in Cairo. Cameroon are the defending champions.
